The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for controlling temperature inside a chamber. It particularly relates to a method and apparatus for controlling temperature of air or liquid (e.g., water or oil) contained inside a chamber, such as a drying oven, or an incubator, or an electric furnace, etc., through temperature programing according to a temperature profile which has an increasing or decreasing temperature period and a subsequent constant temperature period.
In order to examine or test samples or substances, temperature controllers or regulators have been employed for regulating the temperature inside chambers in which the samples or substances are heated or cooled one or more times, according to temperature profiles required therefor in, for example, the Japanese Industrial Standard.
In order to set a temperature program according to the temperature profile in the above-mentioned temperature controller, the temperature controller deems that temperature changes in the chamber include an aggregate of steps each of which, respectively, has an increase or decrease temperature period toward a target temperature or a constant temperature period at the target temperature. An operator has to set the temperature program for each step while inputting a specific number of parameters for each step. For this initializing method, even though some parameters in different steps overlap, the operator always needs to set or input the specific numbers for the parameters for each step. Therefore, when setting a temperature program which includes many steps in the prior art, the operator needs to input many parameters repeatedly, thereby causing input errors or inconvenience in checking the parameters.